CORONOVIRUS INFECTION COVID-19. MASKS (literature review)

At the end of 2019, an outbreak of a new coronavirus infection occurred in the People's Re-public of China with an epicenter in the city of Wuhan (Hubei province). On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization has assigned the official name of the infection caused by the new coronavirus - COVID-19 ("Coronavirus disease2019"). On February 11, 2020, the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy gave the official name to the infectious agent - SARS-CoV-2.Since the end of January 2020, cases of COVID-19 have begun to be registered in many coun-tries of the world, mainly associated with travel to the PRC. At the end of February 2020, the epidemiological situation with COVID-19 in South Korea, Iran and Italy sharply worsened, which subsequently led to a significant increase in the number of cases in other countries of the world associated with travel to these countries, incl. and in Russia. The World Health Organiza-tion announced the COVID-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020, and the pandemic's challenge to the world will remain so as long as people are not immune to it.The Regional Director of the World Health Organization Takeshi Kasai, on the basis of an epidemiological analysis, reports that the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 in July-August 2020 occurred mainly among people under 50 years old, and they often did not even know about it, because they had mild or no symptoms. In the future, these people then infect older people who are more difficult to tolerate COVID-19. And we need to redouble our efforts to prevent the spread of the virus in vulnerable communities.

COVID-19 AND ATTITUDES OF GROUND-LEVEL PUBLIC HEALTH STAFF IN SRI LANKA

Introduction: Health care workers (HCW) face considerable mental and physical stress caring for patients with Covid-19. Their attitudes towards COVID-19 are important both in the prevention as well treatment of the disease. Aims: To assess the attitudes toward coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) among community healthcare workers at Regional Director of Health Services area Galle district, Sri Lanka. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was carried out between August 2020 and January 2021 at the Regional Director of Health Services area Galle district, Sri Lanka. Methods and Material: All community healthcare workers who were directly involved in COVID-19 in Galle district, Sri Lanka were recruited for the study, and the data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was done to describe the demographic factors and attitudes Chi-square test was used to assess the relationship between the level of attitude and demographic factors. Statistical analysis used: Chi-square test. Results: Of the community health workers 71%(n=84) had a positive attitude indicating a good attitude regarding the COVID-19 prevention strategies. Nearly 91%(n=107) of the population agreed to vaccination against COVID-19. There was no statistically significant association between attitude on COVID-19 with sex, age, marital status, educational level, service period, and category of occupation. Conclusions: A majority of healthcare workers had positive attitudes toward COVID-19. Additional awareness and continuous knowledge updates are required for healthcare workers to sustain positive attitudes during the pandemic.

“A Three-Year Vacation”

This chapter recounts the Big Blowdown of 1950 in Adirondack, New York. It introduces Clarence Petty, a New York State Forest Ranger who was asked to go up and look at the damage that had happened in the Adirondack Forest Preserve. The chapter outlines the appeal of foresters to the state legislature to start a salvage logging program in the forest preserve. It then turns to narrate the early life of Clarence, from being a park ranger to pilot, as well as the story of his brother's life Bill Petty, a regional director of the Conservation Department. Clarence became the undisputed authority on the forest preserve. He combined his years of aerial observation with three major surveying assignments that took him to every acre of state-owned land in the Adirondacks. He called his first assignment “a three-year vacation.” The chapter examines the statewide version of the disagreement between the Petty brothers, in which Clarence and other Forever Wild advocates were horrified by salvage logging in the forest preserve, while Bill and other scientific foresters replied that the friends of the Forever Wild clause were silly and sentimental. Ultimately, the chapter reviews the work of Neil Stout and Clarence Petty to make detailed maps and gather as much useful data as possible on the large roadless areas in the forest preserve.

SPE Board Announces Nominees 2023 President and 2022 Directors

SPE Board Announces Nominees 2023 President and 2022 Directors Medhat (Med) Kamal is the nominee for 2023 SPE President. He and six others make up the new slate of nominees recommended for positions open on the SPE Board of Directors. 2023 SPE President Medhat (Med) Kamal is a Chevron Fellow Emeritus with primary responsibilities including competency development within the company, identification and development of emerging and white-space technology opportunities, and provision of technological advice and counsel to senior management. He formerly was a fellow and leader at the dynamic reservoir characterization group for Chevron Energy Technology Company. Before Chevron he worked for ARCO, Flopetrol Schlumberger, and Amoco. North America Regional Director Simeon Eburi is a frontier exploration and new ventures petroleum engineer with Chevron, responsible for generating conceptual field development for exploration and business development opportunities. He has spent much of his professional life at Chevron in roles ranging from production operations supervisor in Bakersfield, California, and decision and economic analyst/advisor for deepwater US Gulf operations to production engineer in Oklahoma. Africa Regional Director Oghogho Effiom is a senior development planner for Shell Nigeria, where she enables integration between all disciplines to ensure consistencies across projects regarding development concepts, scenarios, and decisions. She formerly was a senior production geologist with Shell Nigeria. Asia Pacific Regional Director Henricus Herwin is the vice president for technical excellence and coordination at Pertamina, facilitating the expansion of the development and production staff ’s technical capabilities through publications, training, and networking. Prior to his current post, Herwin served as vice president of geoscience and reservoir for Pertamina as well as the head of the development and planning division. Before joining Pertamina in 2018, he held various upstream positions at Total. Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Hisham Zubari is the senior advisor to the Minister of Oil for Bahrain, where he identifies, initiates, plans, and manages national energy and sustainability initiatives related to energy efficiencies, renewable energy, and circular economy. He also acts as a senior advisor to the Bahrain National Oil and Gas Authority. Prior to his current posts, Zubari was deputy chief executive officer of Tatweer Petroleum and general manager for human resources and administration for Bahrain Petroleum Company, among other positions. Completions Technical Director Karen Olson is a senior completions advisor for Well Data Labs and an independent consultant. She previously was technology director for Southwestern Energy Company. Olson has been a completion/ reservoir engineer for more than 37 years, starting her career as a fracturing engineer for The Western Company of North America. She has also worked at S.A. Holditch and Associates, Mobil Oil, and BP. Reservoir Technical Director Rodolfo Gabriel Camacho-Velázquez is a professor in the petroleum engineering department at the National University of Mexico, where he teaches courses related to naturally fractured reservoirs and provides guidance and monitors research progress on the subject. He worked with Pemex for 25 years, where he was the manager of different positions identifying assets’ technical needs and provided guidance on the dynamic characterization and behavior of complex, naturally fractured reservoirs.

Honouring Nancy Barnes, nee Brumbie (1927–2012), South Australia’s first qualified Aboriginal Kindergarten Director

To date, the work of Aboriginal early childhood educators in the mid-twentieth century has not been widely acknowledged. Nancy Barnes, nee Brumbie (1927–2012), exemplifies the strength and tenacity of Aboriginal Australians who had to negotiate their lives and work in white institutions and a society which denied them fundamental human rights. Nancy graduated from the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College in December 1956 as the first qualified Aboriginal kindergarten director in South Australia. Following on, she was the foundation director of Ida Standley Preschool in Alice Springs (1959–1962) then the first ‘regional director’ in the Kindergarten Union of South Australia. Based on traditional archival research and analysis of public documents and Barnes’ autobiography, the article begins with her childhood and youth as a domestic servant and then explores her career, political activism, experiences of racism and lifelong commitment to addressing inequalities between Aboriginal and white Australians through education.

Non Communicable Disease Programme of Colombo District, Sri Lanka: A Technical Report

Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) are the dominant chronic health problem in Sri Lanka. NCDs are basically classified into 2 types; acute NCD & chronic NCD. Policies, Strategies, Activities and monitoring and evaluation plans are in place in the National NCD programme. The objective of this case study is to study the Non Communicable Disease Programme of the division of Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) – Colombo. Key informant’s interviews, review of secondary literature and observation in district review meetings were used to collect information. It was found that RDHS division - Colombo is responsible for both preventive and curative heath care for a population of 2.2 Million through 56 health care institutions. With regard to NCDs; injury surveillance, advocacy, capacity building, development of information, education & communication material, social media strategies and regular reviews are in good progress while gaps were seen in pre admission care, coverage of service, utilization pattern, treatment of NCDs, health promotion, inter sectorial corporation and information management system. Nominal group technique was used for prioritization. The issue of “NCD curative care provision is not optimum” was selected as the highest priority problem. Fish born diagram was developed to find root causes. The arm of “Physician factors” was selected to give recommendations and action plan was prepared accordingly.

In Honor of Dr. Abdul Hussein Taba: Iranian Physician and Former Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the World Health Organization

The honorable Abdul Hussein Tabatabaei was born in 1911 in Iran and received his medical education in the United Kingdom. Famously known as Dr. A.H. Taba, he was a well-respected man for his significant impact on the improvement of the national and global healthcare services and support for social justice. Before joining the World Health Organization (WHO), he was twice elected to the Iranian national assembly and served as the under-secretary of health services in Iran. Later, he joined the WHO and was elected as the Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) in Alexandria in 1957 – a position he maintained for 25 years. During his tenure as the Regional Director, he rendered valuable assistance to the development and expansion of major health issues such as development and expansion of the health workforce, improvement of the national health services and controlling of various communicable diseases in the member countries and across the WHO regional offices.